Tamil hero Vishal who had tasted few good hits in Telugu has been failing to make a mark at Tollywood box office in the recent past. His latest film directed by Hari is dubbed in Telugu as Pooja.

Story :

Srinivas (Vishal) locks horns with a criminal called Singannapatrudu (Mukesh Tiwary) as the latter messes with his family. Srinivas beats Singanna in a public place to which the latter seeks revenge on the former. Srinivas needs to safeguard his family from Singanna. How does Srinivas saves his family from Singanna forms rest of the story.

Performances:

Vishal: It is cakewalk for Vishal to play a hot blooded youth. He is very good in action sequences and has impressed in his scenes with Shruti. Vishal did complete justice to his character.

Shruti Haasan: Shruti Haasan gets a chance to play a notable role amid action drama. She is good as the female lead and definitely one of the major positives of this film.

Others: Satya Raj is fine as the police officer. Mukesh Tiwary is very good in the antagonist role. It is good to see someone different from the usual villains. Radhika did a dignified character. Jayaprakash, Sitara and Kausalya are impressive among the supporting cast. Soori gets on your nerves with loud comedy. Andrea sizzled in an item song.

Technicalities:

Direction:Hari is known for churning out commercial entertainers at will. He plays to the galleries with Pooja by inserting lot of action episodes. He tried his best to make Pooja an engaging watch by using his experience, but sadly the script is too weak. Hari has to blame himself for coming up with a story that doesn’t have any substance in it. He showed sparks of brilliance here and there, but on a whole Pooja makes a tedious watch.

Others: Vishal’s production values are good and so is the cinematography. Priyan’s work in action scenes is pretty impressive. Editing is not up to the mark. The film drags too much towards the end. Music by Yuvan Shankar Raja is mediocre. Background score is good though.

Thumbs Up:

Interval Episode

Mass elements

Thumbs Down:

Second Half

Songs

Analysis:

Hari who has the reputation of making mass friendly commercial entertainers tried to pull off yet another masala flick by using his tricks. He tries too hard to impress with a very weak script. Few action sequences have come out well and that is the only positive in this film besides able star cast.

It will be a big test to sit through the film right from the word go. Things get better towards the interval point and we expect a thrilling war between the protagonist and antagonist in the second half. Confrontation scenes between them are somewhat better than the remaining junk, but it gets repetitive after a while.

Mother-Son thread is left underdeveloped. Director should have made use of this thread instead of wasting time on stupid comedy scenes. Romance between Shruti and Vishal is a boring fare. Shruti’s parents behave very awkwardly to make that part even uglier. Director could have ended this film at any point after the interval. But he keeps on dragging to increase the pain of audience.

Pooja may appeal to audience who love to watch endless action scenes and a tug of war between the hero and villain. We have seen better commercial movies than Pooja and even Vishal has some very good action flicks to his credit. Pooja is a boring film that tries too hard to hold the interest of audience. Watch it at your own risk.